Comparison

Spreadsheet or QR accreditation system: when each one is enough for your event in Argentina

By SOMOS DER · October 30, 2026 · 8 min read

A spreadsheet or a paper list is enough when there is a single door, people arrive a few at a time, there are no areas with different permissions and nobody needs a reliable report afterwards. It stops being enough when most guests arrive at once, there is more than one entrance, there is a VIP area or backstage, or you have to prove how many people came in. The spreadsheet has no license fee, but it costs time at the door and leaves open double entry, impersonation and exposed personal data.

If you are an agency or organizer from abroad producing an event in Argentina, you will hear the word acreditación constantly. Locally it means the whole check-in process: registering guests beforehand and letting them in at the door. Many local teams still do it with an Excel file printed the night before. This guide helps you decide, with your own event in mind, whether that is fine or whether it will hurt you on the night.

First, what the spreadsheet does well

Not every event needs a system. The spreadsheet has real advantages, and they are worth stating:

• Nothing to learn. Anyone can find a name and cross it out.
• No internet needed if it is printed. An online QR system like PASE does need a connection at the check-in point.
• No license fee.
• It works well with people you know. At a dinner for forty where the host greets guests at the door, a list is more than enough.

If your event looks like that, keep it simple. The trouble starts when the event grows in one of four directions, and size is not always the one that matters.

Where the spreadsheet breaks

1. When people arrive together

With a spreadsheet, every entry is a search: ask the name, spell it, find it among similar surnames, cross it out. When people arrive one by one, nobody notices. When many arrive in the same few minutes, the queue grows faster than the operator can search. The spreadsheet answer is more operators with more copies, and that creates the next problem. To size the door for your arrival curve, see how many check-in points and staff your event needs.

2. When there is more than one door

Two doors with two printed copies do not talk to each other: someone can come in through one, and a companion using the same name through the other. A shared online spreadsheet helps, but not completely: if two operators look up the same name at the same moment, both see it as free and both mark it. A QR system solves this differently. In PASE, protection against double entry works across doors: if two scanners read the same code at the same time, one person gets in and the other screen shows DUPLICATE.

3. When there are areas with different permissions

The spreadsheet says whether someone is invited, not where they can go. If there is also a VIP area, backstage, a press room or a speakers' lounge, you need another list per area, or a wristband that can be passed from hand to hand. A system with permissions per attendee type answers at each check-in point whether that type of guest can enter there, and shows NOT AUTHORIZED when it cannot (more in access control for VIP, backstage and rooms).

4. When you have to prove who came in

At the end of the night, a crossed-out list tells you how many crossings there are, not what time each person arrived or through which door. If your client or a sponsor asks for real attendance, peak times or entry flow, with a spreadsheet you rebuild it by hand, with a margin of error. A system records it as it happens. Our guide to the post-event report for your client covers what is worth looking at.

The risks you do not see on the spreadsheet

Impersonation

With a list, the check is a name said out loud. Anyone who knows the name of a guest who did not show up can walk in instead. The credentialing guide of CISA, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, recommends credentials that are easy to recognize but hard to forge, personal where possible so they cannot be transferred, and a record of who received each one. A unique QR code per person meets the first two better than a name on a list. It is not foolproof: a QR code can also be forwarded, but it only works once.

Credentials you cannot cancel

The same guide notes that electronic systems make it possible to activate or deactivate a credential if it is lost or stolen, and that scannable credentials let you control the access area. With a printed list, if someone must not get in, you have to tell every operator and hope they remember it at the busiest moment.

Personal data in plain sight

A printed sheet with names, emails, phone numbers or national ID numbers (in Argentina, the DNI) on a table is an exposed database. Argentina's data protection law, Law 25,326, requires in its article 9 that whoever is responsible for the data take the technical and organizational measures needed to prevent its alteration, loss, or unauthorized access or processing. A sheet anyone can photograph, or an Excel file that circulated by email among half the team and the suppliers, is hard to defend. We cover it in attendee data in Argentina and Law 25,326.

Costs: a fair comparison

The spreadsheet looks free because it has no license. But it has costs that are paid in hours:

• Setup: collecting responses, cleaning duplicates, sorting, printing.
• The door: more operators during the peak to make up for search time.
• On-the-spot additions: writing down by hand whoever was not on the list, and typing it up afterwards.
• The report: counting crossings, rebuilding times, putting together the report for the client.

On the other side, a system has a license cost and some preparation. PASE is quoted per event: Base from USD 600, Pro from USD 1,500 and Enterprise custom (see pricing). Do the math with your own numbers: team hours saved, operators you do not need to add, and what a reliable report is worth to your client.

How to decide in five questions

1. Is there a single door? With two or more, the spreadsheet starts leaving gaps.
2. Do people arrive gradually or all at once? If they arrive together, searching by name builds a queue.
3. Are there areas with different permissions? With VIP, press or backstage, you need more than a list.
4. Does the operator know the guests? If not, the list does not stop someone who gives a name that is not theirs.
5. Do you have to deliver a report? If the client asks for real attendance and times, the spreadsheet will not give it to you.

If you answered no to almost everything, the spreadsheet is enough. If you answered yes to two or more, the system saves more than it costs. And if you are in between, there is a middle path: use a QR system for registration and the door, and keep a backup spreadsheet for the extreme case of the network going down (see what to do if the internet goes down at the door).

What changes for a team from abroad

If you produce from another country, the door is usually run by a local crew you have never worked with. A list that depends on the operator's judgment depends on someone you do not know. A system where the screen says VALID, DUPLICATE or NOT AUTHORIZED makes the rule the same for every operator. In PASE, the registration page and the QR email are available in Spanish and English, which helps when part of the guest list travels in. The live report and the closing report are in Spanish, so plan for someone on your side to read them.

The spreadsheet is not wrong. It is designed for one door, known guests and nobody asking for numbers afterwards.

Frequently asked questions